With Central Cabinet giving it’s nod to the constitution of two lac Primary Agriculture Cooperative Societies (PACS) and dairy fishery cooperative units in the next five years across the country is yet another major step to boost the cooperative movement in the country. Though more than six hundred cooperative agriculture cooperative societies have been already established in Jammu & Kashmir but once the central cabinet’s recent decision is implemented the Primary Agriculture Societies have to be established in every village Panchayat and as such the onus of carrying out a fresh exercise on establishing new Primary Agriculture Societies (PACS) in Jammu & Kashmir lies on Registrar J&K Cooperative Department. For all practical purposes without consulting and coordinating with the Agriculture , Fisheries and Rural Development Departments the Registrar Cooperative J&K can’t initiate any exercise for identifying the village panchayats which are still without Primary Agriculture Societies (PACS). It is in place to mention here that Primary Agriculture Societies (PACS) provide short-term loans to farmers for the facility of seeds, fertilisers, pesticides and other inputs at the start of every cropping season and farmers need to repay these crop loans at a very low rate of interest. What merits a mention here is the fact both the Central and State/UT Governments put in their contributions for such crop loans and farmers avail the facility of interest subvention in the repayment of such crop loans.
“Financial viability of the Primary Agriculture Cooperative Societies (PACS) matters the most in Jammu & Kashmir if the progress and prosperity of farmers is the motive of constituting new Primary Agriculture Cooperative Societies (PACS)”
While the no of panchayats in Jammu & Kashmir is probably in thousands, the no of Primary Agriculture Cooperative Societies (PACS) is just about 625 in Jammu & Kashmir. The nod of Central Cabinet to constitution of two lac new Primary Agriculture Societies (PACS) would give Jammu & Kashmir also a golden opportunity to establish new Primary Agriculture Societies in the panchayats where no Primary Agriculture Cooperative Society (PACS) has been established asyet. However merely establishing Primary Agriculture Society (PACS) won’t bring relief and respite to farmers unless and until the working of Primary Agriculture Cooperative Societies (PACS) already established by the Government are not reviewed for the purpose of reviving such Primary Agriculture Cooperative Societies (PACS) which have become defunct over the period of year and are unable to repay the loans they have already availed. So without enforcing the accountability for the Primary Agriculture Societies (PACS) and reviewing the processes and procedures for the repayment of crop loans the increase in the no of Primary Agriculture Cooperative Societies (PACS) won’t make much difference. At the end of the end the financial viability of the Primary Agriculture Cooperative Societies (PACS) matters the most in Jammu & Kashmir if the progress and prosperity of farmers is the motive of constituting new Primary Agriculture Cooperative Societies (PACS) .
